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Human Tissue Act may have helped research, says study

Posted on 01/09/2009
University of Leicester

Fears that medical research using tissue such as blood or material from biopsies would be obstructed by the Human Tissue Act 2004 may have been unfounded, a new study from the University of Leicester reveals.

In fact, the research suggests that the Act may have helped medical research by giving Research Ethics Committees clarity when making decisions.

Many medical researchers in UK universities and research institutions had feared that the legislation would unduly restrict research based on tissue samples and that ethics committees might struggle to interpret the Act.

But the study by University of Leicester researchers Emma Angell and Mary Dixon-Woods suggests these fears may have been misplaced. Based on an analysis of letters written by ethics committees